In recent years, the central shopping areas of most cities have given way to neighborhood shopping centers. As a result, a retailer of a specialized product finds he must establish stores at a number of different locations if he is to serve a wide area. This is an expensive proposition in terms of both capital and operating expense.
The problem is not so serious in the case of restaurants, drug stores, clothing stores and the like which may be visited frequently by the same clientele. There are other types of businesses, however, which are not ordinarily visited by a customer or a prospective customer any more frequently than once or twice a year. An example of such a business is a carpet store.
For this reason a carpet store must of economic necessity serve a wider geographical area than a drug store or a clothing store and the customers are forced to drive greater distances or limit themselves to shopping in only a very limited number of competitive establishments.
In remote communities carpet stores will be many miles apart and the local populace will have to travel great distances to buy carpeting. Then, unless a buyer is willing to make a second or third trip he is forced to make a quick decision without having had the benefit of taking samples home for better examination and for comparison of color and fabric with other furnishings.
For these and other reasons there is a need for a mobile carpet distributing center which may be moved from one location to another spending perhaps one day and one night in each of several locations on a weekly or monthly schedule. Such a mobile carpet store would offer a number of advantages: It would afford the retailer a means for realizing wide geographical coverage without the expense involved in maintaining several stores. It would at the same time provide a convenience to the customer by reducing the distance and time spent in travel. Finally, an overall economy would be realized in terms of the conservation of motor fuel as well as in a reduction of congestion on city streets.